Hello,
I'm kind of new to this microhydro subject, but I've been trying to
learn, after finding out that our newly acquired property has a year-
round stream... any help and info on this topic would be greatly
appreciated..
For our stream, the approx head is 120ft, flow is probably 70-80GPM
(what we can get out of the creek). With that configuration, we're
probably looking at a 500w system... but the problem is this:
The creek is about 800ft away from the residence. That's too far
for any DC current to travel on a reasonably-sized wire. So some
people have pointed me toward AC hydrogenerators.. To have the AC
come up from the creek, and then convert it to DC (using the
inverter/charger) at the residence to charge the batteries. (we
definitely want to go with the batteries instead of using the power
directly, since this is a weekend-high-usage situation)
Now the questions (if any of you could even answer just one or two,
that would be very helpful in getting me up to speed with this
topic):
1) I heard that AC hydrogenerators need to have some way of making
consistent AC voltage / frequency.. So does that mean I need to hit
the "lowest common denominator" by tuning the generator to produce
60Hz at the lowest flow time of the season? Would that result in
wasting power?
2) How does the inverter handle the AC current from the
hydrogenerator, if it's not very consistent? (like if there's lower
flow one week). Does it matter?
3) Is it better & simpler to just get a DC generator (which is
cheaper), convert it to AC at the creek, and then move it up to the
residence, and then convert it back to DC? Is there much power loss
during those conversions?
4) I'm thinking of getting a 4-nozzle pelton wheel system, but I
also heard of some other systems like "stream engine" which works
better at low flow situations. Would my stream (120 ft head, 60 gpm
flow) work well with the pelton wheel?
Thank you very much for reading. Any help would be greatly
appreciated.
--Daniel
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